What is CQA®?
How It All Began
Today, food producers, processors, marketers, consumers and the media are well educated and interested more than ever about food safety. The industry is therefore constantly challenged to provide assurances. In order to remain competitive, Canadian hog producers must have a system in place that provides them.
The food industry recognizes that every stage in the farm-to-fork chain needs to be controlled and monitored. Thus, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles are being adopted throughout all stages of food production. Although HACCP was originally intended only for use only in food processing operations, it is now an internationally-recognized set of powerful principles for controlling food safety through all stages of food production. CQA® is based on HACCP.
Initially, a team of technical experts from the industry and government worked together to examine food safety issues and develop a workable solution—a rigorous quality assurance program for hog producers focusing on on-farm food safety. The committee’s first step was to recognize that an effective program should be based on knowledge of physical, chemical and biological hazards that can affect food safety.
Next, they developed a set of best practices for minimizing or eliminating hazards. The third step was to develop an appropriate program, which resulted in CQA®. It was launched in Canada officially on April 8, 1998.
The 2004 version of the CQA® program materials has been completely revised from the original program released in 1998. Over the years, selected changes have been made to the text of the program materials to address changes in the industry and clarify ideas that were found to present challenges; however, the 2004 program is the result of a complete review of the HACCP model and producer materials.
The Canadian federal government, through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), has established a system to formally recognize on-farm food safety programs, to ensure they are technically sound and delivered appropriately. CQA® has received its Letter of Completion from CFIA, which means the technical content of our program has been reviewed by government experts and has been found to be sound.
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